FBI seeks help finding body of Montana teacher as police charge two men over her death

These are the two men accused of kidnapping a missing Montana math teacher whose disappearance for over a week has led a search spanning two states.

The FBI has asked property owners in North Dakota and Montana to search their land for signs of the buried body of 43-year-old Sherry Arnold of Sidney following the arrest of Michael Keith Spell and Lester Vann Waters.

In a statement released last night, the FBI said the school teacher may have been buried in a 'shelter belt' - a line of trees that protects soil from the wind.

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'Her body has not been recovered.'

The two men, Lester Vann Waters, 47, and Michael Keith Spell, 22, of Parachute, Colorado, are being held in Williams County Correctional Center in Williston, North Dakota, awaiting extradition to Montana.

Missed: Mrs Arnold was a math teacher in the small town of Sidney, Montana when she went missing after a January 7 early jog

They are both charged with aggravated kidnapping.

High school maths teachers Ms Arnold disappeared on January 7 near her home after going out jogging.

Searchers found one of her running shoes on the outskirts of the town, which has undergone rapid growth amid a regional oil and gas boom.

'To the best of my knowledge, no body has been recovered,' Sidney Mayor Bret Smelser told Reuters late on Saturday. 'We don't know where the body is at this point.'

Mrs Arnold's husband, Gary Arnold, said he was grateful for the work of the FBI and police in the case and said he believes police 'may know where she is.'

Caught: Two men have been arrested in relation to the Arnold case, but neither were in Montana- one was in North Dakota and one in South Dakota

'While this did not turn out the way we all had hoped, at least we are moving toward a resolution and an answer,' he said.

'We have the gift of being able to say farewell to Sher, and we are thanking God.'

Mr Arnold, a coordinator of federal programs for the same public school system in Sidney that employed his wife, expressed gratitude to those who helped him and his family.

'We thank the searchers, the people who fed us, the people who cared, the people who loved Sher. We want to thank them for the love they showed us,' he said.

The mayor of Sidney, a 5,000-population town on the upper Missouri River, said stepped-up oil and gas production from hydraulic fracturing has brought more people and economic activity as well as crime to the town.

Found dead: Police have confirmed that Sherry Arnold is dead, but have not said how or where she died

He said firearms sales and permits to carry concealed handguns were on the rise, Mr Smelser said.

'Before this, we always presumed we were safe and felt secure,' he said.

Although there is no suggestion that oil workers were involved in Mrs Arnold's disappearance authorities believe they have brought a transient dangerous element to the small town, where everyone used to know each other.

'We own the day,' Mr Smelser told ABCNews. 'They own the night. Unfortunately, Sherry was running in the early hours of the morning.'

Hundreds of residents, police, firefighters and others combed the town and surrounding countryside earlier this week without results.

Officials have not reported finding a body, and Mr Smelser said no additional searches are planned.

Family: Sherry and her husband Gary had a total of five children from previous marriages

Sidney school officials posted a statement online saying they learned of Mrs Arnold's death Friday. The statement did not provide details. The FBI hasn't confirmed Mrs Arnold's death.

Sherry Arnold and her husband, Gary Arnold, have five children combined from prior marriages.

Two live at home and attend the same school system where Mrs Arnold worked for the past 18 years.

Despite the unknowns, Mr Smelser said the community is moving forward.

'We'll wait for the final evidence and then as a community we need to have a serious discussion to get us back to where we were and make us whole, to give us peace back in our hearts and a sense of security,' he said.